A Singaporean In Australia

Muscular injuries were no strangers to me. Sprained elbows, ankles, shoulders, neck, upper back, lower back, fingers, wrists, toes you name it. My lower back got me on Thursday afternoon. It was another one of those where you know 'that's it' when you felt that twitch. Surprisingly, I had near-misses in the previous job, where work was much heavier than this one. But I screwed up the lower back in my 2nd week here instead.

Lower back is one of the most paralysing strains you could have. If you get a bad one, you can hardly get out of bed. I managed to do it because Jen kindly did a basic cupping session for me and shooed me to bed quickly. I could still work because none of the parcels were heavier than 15kg. In this company, I learnt that there is a law here (which I'm not familiar with) that workers should not be expected to carry a load of more than 15kg. It sounds familiar because when I considered applying for a postman job when I first came, one of the requirements in the list was 'to be able to carry up to 15kg'. My boss is not trying to be nice and taking care of us on his own accord here. There could be something to it in the books.

Funnily enough all the heavy parcels over 20kgs are actually imported from Singapore. It is somewhat amusing to read the label on the parcel. The exporting company is at Joo Koon and they even have the packers' names written on it. Eg. Arman, Iswandi etc.

I need to get to the point. The boss came to know about my strained back and gave a wtf expression. Rahman the Afghani strained his shoulder this Tuesday and could not lift a single length of threaded rod by himself. Rohan the Aborigine claimed he hurt his chest and could not lift as well and couldn't drive a forklift. That sound serious. I managed to continue my work despite the back that gave way. Much slower, much lesser difficult movements. I suggested starting work earlier at 0600hrs on Saturday by myself so that I can leave at 1400hrs to visit a massage joiint. The boss went in and scribbled something then emerged and shoved it to me and told me to knock off immediately and visit Marianne after taking a bath.

I arrived at Marianne's house at 1700hrs sharp. She lives just 5 minutes away from me. According to boss she has been doing this for 40 over years. Ok. She must be good. She better be because that'll cost me 60 bucks for that hour of treatment. Being injury prone all my life, I'm no stranger to massage therapies. This one surprises me and left me intrigued. That's what interesting about living a life overseas. It doesn't matter where you moved to, new experiences always humble you, just when you think you've seen it all.

It felt quite ridiculous the first 15 minutes into the therapy. It felt like a quack. There was hardly any massage at all. Marianne was trained in the school of Bowen Therapy. I began to ask show my skepticism by asking all kinds of questions. Though I'm not exactly well learnt in this field, I'm no noob as well and I can tell who is bullshitting me anytime.  Marianne explained everything in clarity even though the concept sound odd. By the end of 60 minutes. Marianne hardly broke into sweat like any traditional masseuse might. She wouldn't because all she did was pinch a little here, pinch a little there in all respect. Still, by the time I paid up I felt there were something to it. I trust this old lady and whatever discussion we had about it. She told me to keep the faith and believe in my body's healing abilities. For she had set my body enough to allow itself to heal holistically.

My lower back didn't feel better by the time I paid up. After dinner, I felt better. I could still feel pain like having a bruise at the back but there was no longer any excruciating pain when I made regular movements as before. This is curiously odd. I felt compelled to learn this from Marianne. She told me she accepts student.